FREE ESSAY ON DESCARTES - MIND AND BODY

DESCARTES - MIND AND BODY

Descartes overall objective in the Meditations is to question knowledge. To explore such
issues as the existence of God and the separation of mind and body, it was important for
him to distinguish what we can know as truth. He believed that reason as opposed to
experience was the source for discovering what is of absolute certainty.
The first meditation acts as a foundation for all those that follow. Here Descartes
discerns between mere opinion and strict absolute certainty. To make this consideration
he establishes that he must first attack those principles which supported everything I
once believed. He first examines those beliefs that require our senses. He questions,
whether our senses are true indicators of what they represent. By inspecting our
sometimes firm belief in the reality of dreams, he comes to the conclusion that our
senses are prone to error and thereby cannot reliably distinguish between certainty and
falsity. To examine those ideas that have objective reality, Descartes makes the
improbable hypothesis of an evil genius, as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who
has directed his entire effort to misleading me. By proposing this solution he is able to
suspend his judgment and maintain that all his former beliefs are false. By using doubt
as his tool, Descartes is now ready to build his following proofs with certainty.
In Meditation two, Descartes embarks on his journey of truth. Attempting to affirm the
idea that God must exist as a fabricator for his ideas, he stumbles on his first
validity: the notion that he exists. He ascertains that if he can both persuade himself
of something, and likewise be deceived of something, then surely he must exist. This self
validating statement is known as the Cogito Argument. Simply put it implies whatever
thinks exists. Having established this, Descartes asks himself: What is this I which
necessarily exists? Descartes now begins to explore his inner consciousness to find the
essence of his being. He disputes that he is a rational animal for this idea is difficult
to understand. He scrutinizes whether perhaps he is a body infused with a soul but this
idea is dismissed since he cannot be certain of concepts that are of the material world.
Eventually he focuses on the act of thinking and from this he posits: I am a thing that
thinks A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also
imagines and senses. To prove that perception on the part of the mind is more real than
that of the senses Descartes asks us to consider a piece of wax. Fresh from the comb the
qualities we attribute to the wax are those derived from the senses. Melted, the
qualities that we attribute to the wax are altered and can only be known to the
intellect. Descartes demonstrates how the information from the senses gives us only the
observable, it is the mind that allows us to understand. The results of the second
meditation are considerable, doubt has both proven the certainty of Descartes existence
and that his essence is the mind.
Descartes having proven that God exists must now make some clarifications concerning why
God is no deceiver. The main question that needs clarification is this: If God is no
deceiver then why do we err? Descartes answers that we are prone to make mistakes because
our wills are infinite but our intellect is not. The will gives us the faculties of
assertion, denial and suspension of judgment. The intellect allows us to perceive things
clearly and distinctly. Like God we have an infinite will, but we are imperfect because
are understanding is finite. Descartes concludes that because we are free we are
responsible for our errors. It is possible however, that if we use our faculties properly
we will not assent false judgments. Confident that God has created us such that if we
perceive things clearly and distinctly our reasoning will not be wrong; Descartes is now
free to explore the possibilities of material things and the mind body relationship.
In the fifth meditation the essence of material things is considered. Before he begins
with material considerations however, Descartes feels it necessary to offer another proof
for the existence of God. Since Descartes has just demonstrated that we gain
understanding through ideas, he is able to continue with an ontological argument proving
that God necessarily exists. The claim that is the glue to this argument is that a
supremely perfect being must necessarily exist. If this is not the case the being in
question does not meet the criterion for perfection. God without existence is like a
triangle without 3 sides or a mountain without a valley. (paraphrase) A supremely perfect
being would lack some perfection. That taken care of, he turns his attention to material
issues, namely the body. First Descartes separates sensation as being separate from his
imagination because he does not have any control over it. Doubt takes over at this point
and Descartes must again face the same problem he did in meditation one: the
unreliability of the senses due to dreams or hallucinations. To counter this Descartes
concludes that our knowledge of material things is based on our knowledge of God. He
asserts that God has created him with such a strong belief in the existence of material
things that they must not be false because God is not deceptive. By using God as his
proof for the material world, Descartes has left himself in a precarious situation. Were
it to be found that God does not exist the rest of his assertions would subsequently
crumble. Nevertheless, Descartes is satisfied with the progress that he has made and is
now ready to prove the existence of material things.
There remains but one question as we draw near the end of the meditations, whether
material things exist. To prove the existence of the material objects Descartes draws on
his previous meditations to find the answer. He believes that material things can exist,
if they are the object of mathematics. We can prove the existence of these objects
because we can understand them with our intellect. There remains a question regarding our
imagination. Descarte reasons that it is not essential. The understanding is greater than
the imagination. Descartes assumes to have a body based on what his senses perceive. He
begins to explore this notion that he had previously dismissed to doubt. He inquires
whether his senses give him reason for bodies to exist. He comes to the conclusion that
they do because God has given us a great inclination to believe that these ideas
proceeded from corporeal things. ( ) This proof progresses into the nature of how mind
and body co-exist. Descartes beliefs are as follows: It is from nature that we
distinguish other bodies and their interpretation. We are inclined by nature towards
things that benefit us. This is for our own self- preservation. Descartes makes the
distinction between mind and body. He states that the mind is a thinking, unextended
thing, while the body is a physical extended thing. The mind is indivisible whereas the
body can be divided. It is the minds task to differentiate the part of the body
affiliated with a certain sensation. God has endowed us with these natural inclinations
to allow us self preservation. 
Descartes now dispels his dream hypothesis because he realizes that wakefulness is the
interaction of both mind and body. He leaves us with the message that we must acknowledge
the infirmity of our nature. It is Descartes hope in Meditation two that he is able to
find his first certainty. By use of the Cogito argument Descartes does just that. Having
proven his existence he turns his attention toward the essence of his nature. As the
title of the second meditation suggests, he proves that are essence is of the mind and
thus more known to us than the body. 
The Cogito argument as it looks in the Meditations runs like this: Thus, after everything
has been most carefully weighed, it must finally be established that this pronouncement I
am, I exist is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind. (P.18)
Descartes Second Meditation is an attempt to find a truth that he can accept with
certainty. In order to accomplish this, Descartes has established that his postulate must
be open to strict scrutiny as to expel all doubt to its validity. By the third paragraph
of the meditation he has discovered such a certainty, the claim that I think, therefore I
exist. What he is trying to say with this statement is that every time he thinks
something in his mind, he has proof that he exists. 
It is not possible to think without also existing. This proof, known as the Cogito, is
Descartes first progression towards his goal of perfect knowledge. For this reason it is
important that we examine this proof so that we can have a better understanding of its
meaning. To evaluate the Cogito argument, we must first understand it clearly. There are
four key statements in meditation two that lead Descartes to the certainty that he
exists. Herewith is a summation of Descartes' argument: 
1) Am I so tied to the body and to the senses that I cannot exist without them?
2) But certainly I should exist, if I were to persuade myself of something.
3) Then there is no doubt that I exist, if he (evil demon) deceives me.
4) I am, I exist or in other words I think, therefore I am.
These claims respectively suggest, that by denying, persuading, and being deceived; a
certain faculty of thought is being used. By thinking, one can be certain that he exists.
Though the argument may seem simple and straightforward, upon closer inspection this is
not the case. There seems to be some questions concerning the Cogito's interpretation,
the most important being: What is the first certainty that Descartes uncovers? What
perspective does he use to rationalize this certainty?, and how does he back it up? By
examining the inferential, intuitional and epistemic interpretations, we can discover
which interpretation of the Cogito was meant by Descartes 
in Meditation two. 
At first it seems obvious that Descartes had meant for the Cogito to be an inferential
argument. Of the key propositions in the Meditations all seem to have the commonality of
thinking as their first premise. Similarly the second premise and the conclusion seem to
follow the same pattern. The second premise posits the notion: Whatever thinks exists;
followed by the conclusion: therefore, I exist. To know something by inference, is to
discover something based on 
previous knowledge. In Descartes case, he has come to know a metaphysical certainty,
existence, based on a prior metaphysical certainty, thinking. The soundness of this
reasoning is good because 
know matter what we do it is impossible to deny that we think. It seems simple enough,
until we consider that Descartes seems to emphasize that his first absolute certainty is
existence. Using the criteria for inference then, it is impossible that I exist is the
first certainty. This is a weak argument for in order for this inference to work;
Descartes would have to make revisions to meditation two. However, since he feels so
strongly of this first certainty, I am not convinced that 
Descartes had meant for this interpretation. 
The interpretation of the Cogito, maintains that it is certain because Descartes has
intuited it. Descartes idea of intuition is likened to a flash of insight. It can be seen
to be true, the same way we know that 2+3=5. He simply knows he exists based on a direct
understanding. With this interpretation, clearly the proposition I exist is the first
certainty. The problem of this argument is that the idea of intuition is too subjective
an interpretation to prove that he exists. There is no way to replicate this procedure
and obtain the same conclusion as Descartes. The evidence for this interpretation is not
strong enough to render it to be the one Descartes intended. 
Having established his existence, Descartes finds that his essence is the mind. He places
a major importance on the intellect. In further meditations it is the mind, through
understanding, that leads us to various conclusions. Near the end of Meditation two,
Descartes demonstrates how the ideas of the mind are more attune to finding knowledge
than are senses are. The point that he makes here is that only through the mind can we
understand the essential qualities of the wax. Melted a piece of wax exhibits qualities
such as extension and mutability. These are concepts that are only clear to the
intellect. The main point that Descartes was trying to get across by using this wax
experiment is, that if he can understand the wax better with his mind, then it certainly
follows that he should know himself better through the same faculty.
Descartes presentation of the mind body problem has given me a new topic to explore. Is
it the mind that rules the body or the body that rules the mind. Where does one begin,
and the other end? By using some of Descartes methods I have attempted to see his
arguments, and tried to come to my own conclusions. The mere fact that Descartes found so
many certainties in the Meditations is surprising. The Meditations have taught me to be
open minded, and to acknowledge that sometimes we make mistakes. However, if we take
caution and use reason carefully we are capable of finding certainty.